Sunday, July 31, 2011

Social Exoneration

Blame' is a word that typically leads away from, rather than toward solution. Indeed, the statement that '(we) can’t blame all Americans for what’s happening; they don't control things' leads us naturally around to the truth that the form of disengaged 'democracy' in America is actually a form of inverted totalitarianism which begins with the complicity of apathy and ends with the accomplice role of a soldier committing war crimes on behalf of the government by which he/she has been indoctrinated.

Americans are inducted, trained, indoctrinated from the time they are children into a culture of violence. Upon joining the military, and particularly upon deployment, they are required to check their conscience at the door. While many, as the result of coming to age in a culture that removes compassion from an active choice to a distant concept, have long since distanced their actions from the accountability of conscience, there are those who are unable to resist the natural engagement of their conscience when confronted with the immorality of the actions to which they are exposed and in which they inherently become involved.

Such individuals tragically account for the large number of active military and recent veterans who are emotionally disabled and to the number of enlisted and former military suicides, which accounts for more (American and Israeli) casualties of war than combat.

The nature of this violent culture is compounded by a sociological dynamic that is the result of seeing war as something in a video game or from a television screen as opposed to something that occurs in your own street.

Add to this a Christian fundamentalist doctrine that has etched its way deep into the conscience of the political and military structure and you have a methodical process that operates within a(n) (un)holy alliance of social, political, and military framework. This framework is then supported by secular and civilian American society beneath the banner of 'patriotism' and 'nationalism' within a process of disinformation, dishonesty, and lack of transparency that withholds information, publishes lies, and equates to rationale for murder in the guise of 'national security'.

It is not necessarily the 'fault' of the members of the society, but accountability is something that can be too quickly brushed away in a technological climate where it cannot and should not be allowed to exist; it is far too simple to say 'I didn't know' and 'I was just doing my job' when information is available that would keep the conscience in check.

To dissent, to refuse orders, or to stay within the boundaries of a moral compass is something almost impossible to achieve when such 'isolated incidents' are actually the status quo and take place in and are a microcosm of the larger immoral climate within which such actions take place.

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